There is no doubt that it is a complex puzzle and that brings engineers to electronic systems down, because with each new product and the process of lithographic the conditions of change. For this reason, we cannot talk about electromigration in a particular segment, but in a set of all, as a general idea, since the implication that we will have to talk about the limitations of a particular processor, graphics card or chip.
What is the natural migration of the electric field or Electromigration, what is it?
It is a name many of you have heard, one th ing you may not realize is that it is one of the steps in the so-called “Material migration”. The new concept is divided into four special sections:
- Chemical entries are gradients of that is suffering.
- The resulting migration temperature gradients.
- The resulting migration mechanical pressure.
- And migration by the electric field.
Obviously not everything has to do with the PC industry as such, but of the four causes of such a migration, two are closely related: one caused by greenhouse gases and one caused by electric fields.
The latter is known as Electromigration, but in PCs PCs such as CPUs and GPUs are also associated with the non-migration of heat gradients. They both form the general concept of Electromigration, distributed on forums and websites, which makes it interesting to understand where that name comes from.
All chips suffer from it, but can it be prevented?
Electromigration is a process of deterioration that begins with the basic principle that there is no way to stop it. From now on the chip is out of the wafer and tested in a live bank, the chip is electromigrating.
As would be expected by studying the two types of migration we mentioned, temperature is critical in this regard. It is the only thing that can "delay" the destructive effect it produces on the electrons of the electrons. Current therapeutic densities cause an increase in temperature due to what is known as "Joule is warm-up"
The increase in temperature due to Joule accelerates the electronic input feature of the material and consequently increases the rate of electromigration. Low temperatures cause a contrary effect and result in «voids» between the electronics produced in the content, thus improving their circulation and allowing the Joule temperature to be lower.
In excessive return the final temperature is important
Obviously a chain reaction, so we can say that a processor or GPU at lower temperatures will extend its life by the same power. The key question in this case is how much? Something that is really hard to calculate, because it depends on things like the materials used in the gates as well transistors for a complete lithographic process.
The only thing to consider is not over the high temperatures specified by Intel and AMD or NVIDIA, because the only number we know for sure is the calculated limit of the chip. The remainder should not worry too much about getting more or less, which will also have an impact, because we are expanding the current, Joule factor and consequently lower temperatures will be needed to minimize major degradation compared to stock signals. .
